Chuck

This is what I found after heading into the bathroom after Chuck. He is learning at a young age that we read the Sports Illustrated in the reading room. (You might have to enlarge the picture to really appreciate it.)
I love that boy!

Sweet 16!

Brianna had a strange birthday this year. She had a volleyball tournament all day and didn't know when she'd be done. When she got home Brian was ready to have the party, so we hurried and wrapped the gifts and she opened them.
Brian and I did pretty well. We got a great dress, a denim jacket, a bracelet, sun glasses, and shoes. She liked most everything. We had only one major set back when the security tag was left attached. We had a big poly birthday party on Sunday and Brianna picked to have yummy cake that Grandma Eveline makes. When they put the candles on they read "61!" Oh my how fast she's grown up.

Brianna's New Adventure

Can you believe she's old enough for this???? There's nothing legal about it yet, because she hasn't gotten her permit. She's been out with her instructor twice already. I don't know what we'll do then the day comes!!!
For those of you that live close--you might want to stay off the road.

Family Pictures

So, my mom decided that she wanted to do family pictures before my brother Dan left for a mission in March. About a month ago when we talked about it before, I told her my high school friend could possibly do them--she has done photography for a while and does a really good job. (She also had a give away on her blog last year and I won a landscape picture that she had taken.)
My mom and I didn't talk about it again until a few days before Christmas. I told her that I would check with Jennie, but not to hold her breath. She wanted to take them with Pete and David still in town and before we all went back to school and work. My mom also wanted them to be taken outside. I called Jen that night and asked if be could take some family pictures the day after Christmas. She quickly agreed and we were set.
We decided to take them outside at a fun little park. Little did we know it would be the COLDEST day.
After lots of sadness about the cold and who had to stand by whom we finished the pictures in record time. Jennie just let me know that she had finished check them out at her cute blog here.

Bowling Trip

We took everyone bowling on Monday afternoon. We got there just in time, because after we started, the bowling alley got packed with all sorts of people.
I think Pete and Brian got the best scores, but Tom wasn't far behind. I did the worst, but like to think that after the first game I'd do better. Lucky for everyone else we only bowled one game or else I would have smashed all of them!
The boys love bowling...Charlie mostly loves the video games that are in the next room, but will bowl just to make everyone else happy. (Our camera is so slow that it takes forever to take the picture after you press the button, so I think they were originally looking at the camera for this one.)
For Charlie's happiness we played some video games after our game. Bree killed the dance-dance revolution game. If the said camera wouldn't have quit on me we would have pictures of everyone else playing games too. We had a great afternoon at Orchard Lanes!

Christmas Morning

We did really well this year with Christmas. Santa brought everything that the little boys asked for.
When we pulled the stockings out Charlie said, "we need to get the nails too." I was a little confused about what he wanted, but eventually I realized he waned us to hang the stockings up. So Brian found the nails and we worked on getting them in so we could hang the stocking appropriately. He was very pleased to say the least.
This year Brianna was the early bird. She and Tom woke up at 3:30 AM and were ready to go through the gifts. I rolled over and saw the lights on so I went to check who was awake and then we had to wake everyone else up. I for sure thought Pete would maintain his role of earliest riser, but Brianna beat him to it.
Check out the pictures to see the rest of the fun we had. (There's a lot, so be prepared.)

Reindeer Food

Tom got some magic reindeer food from one of his friends at school, so we had to make sure that Santa and his reindeer would see our house and stop.
Tom dumped some out around the front door.
Charlie then put some further out in the parking lot so they'd know were to stop.
Even David went out to help. He put on his night vision goggles so he'd be able to see where the food was sprinkled.
They had so much fun making sure the food was out and that we would have special visitors that night.